On this page you can find as well socially engaged and collaborative projects that I have been involved in over the years.

MAKE JEWISH BABIES?

Every year thousands of Jewish youngsters from around the world travel cost free to Israel to learn more about their promised land. In the documentary Make Jewish Babies? the sisters Daniëlle, Evelien and Marianne Davidson capture their experiences of this special visit on film.

The three twentysomethings are of Jewish descent, but it had hitherto little significance for them: they didn’t have a specifically Jewish or religious upbringing and until recently they had never even been in a synagogue. During this journey they find out what Jewishness means for them. The documentary, ‘Make Jewish Babies?’ was broadcast on Dutch National TV by NPO.

As research for her documentary film Make Jewish Babies? Daniëlle followed lectures on Jewish Philosophy at the UVA. These drawings where her lecture notes. She presented them in an installation at the Black Magic Woman Festival, where the work was nominated for The Black Magic Woman Award. The drawings were published as an inlay poster in her publication You Could Tell Me More.

THE SOUND OF SHADOW – 16 Projections in Space, 3 Movements in Time, 1 Silence, 2010

A splendid revival for the ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ in Amsterdam: 16 autonomous, especially commissioned (new) media art works are presented in a ‘symikony’, a carefully composed concert for images without sound. 5, 6 and 7 May 2010 in Het Machinegebouw and Het Ketelhuis (Westergasterrein). www.soundofshadow.com.

THE SHADOW OF SILENCE (2’19”, 4:3)Daniëlle Davidson

Where do the boundaries lay between the individual and the masses? What is the impact of the masses on the actions and thoughts of the individual? Does an individual, functioning in a given system, still have a choice? An urban environment (the ant heap of the city) is interesting; how is it possible that in the city, where many ‘cells’ are alive, loneliness is experienced? How does the city ‘flow’ ? In the streams of commuters travelling each day by tram and metro there is a particular system to be found.

The theme of this video project is Chaos in Order. I exhibited a video installation in combination with drawings. This was shown together with the work of four other artists in the Glazen Huis in the Amstelpark. Organized by ZET foundation

ART INTERVENTIONS, 2006. Artlink, Belgrade

In a three-day seminar and a two-week workshop, local and international scholars and artists attempted to understand the complex facets of the Majdanpek region in Belgrade by interacting with the public space and introducing imaginative changes within it. This resulted in site-specific interventions in the form of articles and spatial works. The workshop included 6 scholars and 15 artists. Artists from the Majdanpek region of Serbia collaborated with other international artists.

Coming from Holland and Korea, we noticed that the pace of life in Sudan was different to ours; people walked in a slower rhythm, and the forms of transportation had different characteristics, speeds and appearances. We projected a light onto a wall, bringing together different ‘speeds’ of Sudanese life. Spectators watched how layers of the street were captured by light and projected, in shadows, onto the wall like a cinema screen. The people of El Deam helped with the preparations and during the projection people started to gather in front of the wall. Initially the work was about the various speeds on the street, but people started to experiment with the light and make their own choreography, attracting even more people to join in. A couple played football; playing with different sizes of shadows and people started to make the event their own and interact with music. During the evening the crowd grew. They stayed and the wall transformed into a theatre.

Donkey Day was an attempt to inspire a relationship of mutual respect between working donkeys and their owner’s. This took place behind El Deam street, a bustling market street – an environment that transformed by night. For this event owners washed their donkeys and decorated them with remnants of textile. The day took place on the 14th of February, 2007 on Valentine’s Day. There was food for both donkeys and people; it was a celebration. Owners were given the option to nominate the most beautiful donkey of the day. There was a first and a second place. The day could not have taken place, without the great co-operation of Ali, who worked with donkeys himself on El Deam Street. He was a point of contact amongst the donkey owners and helped prepare them and their donkeys. It was a successful day with the owners responding enthusiastically and the event developing and progressing late into the day.